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347 days later and after undergoing surgery, Rafa Nadal is back. The one from Manacor announced his return in the tournament Brisbane before fully facing the 2024 season with the first Grand Slam of the year. Thus, the Spaniard traveled to the capital of Queensland to ride on the track and reach the first major of 2024 at the best possible level. Before his debut in the individual draw, the Spaniard will form a team with his coach Marc Lopez, with the aim of adding minutes on the court and polishing the last details for the Australian Open. Together they won Olympic gold in Rio 2016. They will face the Australian duo of Max Purcell and Christopher O’Connell this Sunday December 31, around at 6:30 Spanish time. Thus, his debut on the slopes was brought forward from January 2 in the individual draw to this Sunday, January 31.
The draw was kind to Rafa, despite the delicate situation he is going through with the 672nd position in the ranking. With this position, the Spaniard can only enter the competition with the protected ranking (9th) or with an invitation (like in this tournament), in any case can’t be seeded of the tournaments (unless he rises in the ranking on his own merits), which does not leave him exempt from running into some of them in the first rounds. In this case, had managed to avoid Holger Rune, the main ‘coconut’, and a player from the previous phase would be measured.
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Thus, potential rivals such as Gregoire Barrere (84th), Alex Michelsen (97th), Quentin Halys (100th), Diego Schwartzman (114th), Maxime Cressy (126th) or Dominic Thiem (98th). However, after the Austrian’s victory against the guest James McCabe, this will be Rafa’s rival. They are both old acquaintances. They competed in two Roland Garros finals and met last Friday in training. The last confrontation was in the Round Robin of the 2020 ATP Finals and the match was certified by the Austrian 7-6 (7) and 7-6 (4).
Having surpassed his debut, he would be measured against Aslan Karatsev (35th) or Jason Kubler (102nd). In quarters, I would wait for it Jordan Thompson (55th), Ugo Humbert (20th) or Aleksander Vukic (62nd). In the semi-finals they would meet Andy Murray (42nd), Grigor Dimitrov (14th) or Tomás Etcheverry (30th). Holger Rune (8th), first seed, Ben Shelton (17th) or Sebastian Korda (24th) They are the players who could be waiting for Rafa in the final to fight for the title. The first for Rafa after a long forced rest.
The man from Manacor arrives in the capital of Queensland with the energy charged to face the competition that will inaugurate his calendar for 2024. A tournament that he will play for the second time since 2017, when he reached the quarterfinals, and that will be held again since its last time in 2019. This will be one of the events that opens the ATP Tour 2024 along with the United Cup and the Bank of China Hong Kong Tennis Open.
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